{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Just in case you might be concerned, James is pretending to be a robot re-charging his battery while Quentin stands guard.

If you're inspired to, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments at Soule Mama for all to find and see. Have a lovely weekend, friends!

I decided for this summer to try out Amy's idea of doing a different subject each day of the week.Monday will be Art day, but we decided to take off this day this week to have a First Day of Summer party. This was a kind of spur of the

moment party. I saw the "yellow party" at Almost Unschoolers and it seemed like such a nice summer party and then one of the kids mentioned that they would like to have a tea for the first day of summer. I suggested that we could have a little family party instead of a tea, and the rest is, as they say, history.

Tuesday started out with a breakfast of bacon and corn griddle cakes, and then the boys went out to the pool, while Katie went out to her garden to tend to it before it became too hot. Not too much later she came in with a frog. Apparently she needed to rescue it from the pool, and she brought it in for Steven and I to see. It jumped from her hands and all over the room. Tuesday is science and/or nature study day, so when

the boys got out of the pool, we did anearthworm nature study. When they finished their nature journal pages, they went back to the pool, while

Katie prepared fresh fruit dipped in melted chocolate. I had gotten it for the party, but we never got to it then so we had it as a snack. After their snack, more pool while Katie, Steven and I shared making dinner: Paprika-spiced Chicken, (and plain chicken for those not as adventurous), mashed potatoes for the kids and Minted Potato Salad for the adults; a nice summer dinner. Quentin has been begging us to make him a Robin Hood hat ever since he got a bow and arrow set (you know

the kind with a suction cup on the end of the arrows) and so after dinner Steven folded him one and Katie gave him a white feather to put in it. Quentin was one happy Robin Hood.

Wednesdays are history day. This week we studied the Arabs and the beginnings of the Muslum religion. We read and wrote narrations and copywork, and colored maps of the Arabian peninsula. After school, Steven took the boys down to the beach but did not take the camera, so no pictures. You have seen it before, though. Quentin was

Thursday mornings the boys go on a playdate at the park. This is now also our English day, which is primarly individual work since they are at all different levels. James does reading lessons on the computer, and Quentin and James both have handwiting exercises to complete. Sam is working on Literature, handwriting and spelling. This week we looked at Beowulf. Alex is working on his grammar. A postcard arrived from Ohio.

Fridays we study math. Mostly this is individual work, too, but occassionally we will play math games together. This week Quentin worked on fact families and James worked on largesubtraction problems. Sam worked on Order of Operations with Videotext Algebra. This means he watches the lesson on DVD and then does exercises in his math notebook.Lunch of cucumbers,tomatoes, red onions and Feta cheese with a Dijon vinegrette and Grilled Pita slices.The boys had hamburgers and Quentin made a Feta Burger out of his. Computer games were played."School House Rock" was watched. The pool swam in. Vikings read about. Cats petted and loved. Stories made up involving Medieval paperdolls. Postcards were mailed and flowers picked for Friday's flowers. Dinner was Chinese Fried Rice and Salmon cooked in parchment paper packets with sweet peppers, onions, carrots and ginger. More pool after dinner. Made up games until bedtime.

On Saturday we do errands such as grocery and supplies shopping. Steven took the boys went to Lowes this week for their Build and Grow programand made monster trucks while I shopped at WalMart. When

we got home I made new cleaners. Now we are ready for the week to come.

WOW. I like your blog's new look a LOT. I came over here, but I guess I forgot to comment, because alas my comment is not here!

one thing I thought I'd mention just for the record is that we actually do most of the subjects every day, just splitting up our 'living book' reading into daily subjects... but I bet you already knew that :) it gives the kids some structure and something to look forward to. For instance, even though nature study day is Monday, I like for the kids to get outside everyday, but Mondays I actually sit down with them and have them do a journal entry...

anyway, I think your summer party sounds AWESOME. so you guys school year round? or is this a special summer schedule?

We do school all year around, but our summer schedule is more flexible and we do a lot less work. I knew that you must do more than one subject a day, so that you must just do the readings etc. on the different days. I just took this idea and altered it to actually do only one subject a day but thoroughly. I wouldn't have thought of the idea without seeing yours! It is working out great for the summer.